Janus in GoldenEye

Something struck me recently about January: it is named after the Roman God Janus. It is also the codename or nom de guerre of the main villain in the James Bond movie GoldenEye. The very first I watched in cinema (but I was a Bond fan before). So maybe, just maybe, GoldenEye should be my Bond movie to start January. Anyway, spoiler alert, you find below the scene where Janus' true identity is reveals and he meets 007. You will also find out how he got that name. I love these quiet moments in Bond movies, they are full of atmosphere. This one is still chilling and stands out very well after more than 25 years.

Death Train/Detonator

There are bad movies, and there are bad movies one loves. Years and years ago, back in the days of VHS and videoclub, I rented a made for TV B movie. It's title is Detonator, or Death Train in the US. It's an action thriller set on a train hijacked by terrorists lead by a mysterious Russian general turned rogue. Not only did they hijacked the train, but they put an artisanal A bomb on it. And there is a second bomb somewhere else, to complicate things further. This is a sinister but (very) convoluted scheme to restore USSR and it makes very little sense. But there's action on a train going through Europe, with an nuke as a MacGuffin, so what's not to love? And a word on the casting: you have a pre-Bond Pierce Brosnan as the lead, Patrick Stewart to give this mess some proper British thespian gravitas, Christopher freaking Lee as the villain (magnificent as always), a pre Lester Freamont Clarke Peters... Seriously, if nothing else, the casting director did his job right. Is it good? No, not by any stretch of the imagination. But I had a ball rediscovering it recently.